Great Western Coffee Shop

Bath and York are said to be the most expensive cities to park in for the day outside London. (Commission for Intergated Transport, quoted on a BBC Quiz (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/are_we_there_yet/6398099.stm))

Major disruption to services via Bath after a fatality this morning:

Line problem in the Bath Spa area.
Train services between Bristol Temple Meads and Swindon via Chippenham are being disrupted due to a fatality in the Bath Spa area.Short notice alterations, cancellations and delays of up to 30 minutes can be expected.

Replacement road transport is being sourced. Customers are advised not to travel from Bath Spa or Chippenham for the next 3 hours unless essential.

Service incidents
08:25 Great Malvern to Westbury due 11:35
This train has been terminated at Bristol Temple Meads.It will no longer call at: Keynsham, Oldfield Park, Bath Spa, Freshford, Avoncliff, Bradford-On-Avon, Trowbridge and Westbury.This is due to a fatality.


08:52 Weymouth to Gloucester due 12:31
This train has been terminated at Freshford and restarted from Bristol Temple Meads at 11:41.It will no longer call at: Bath Spa, Oldfield Park and Keynsham.This is due to a fatality.


09:00 Brighton to Worcester Foregate Street due 14:29
This train will be restarted from Westbury.It will no longer call at: Brighton, Hove, Shoreham-By-Sea, Worthing, Barnham, Chichester, Havant, Cosham, Fareham, Southampton Central, Romsey, Salisbury and Warminster.This is due to a fatality.


09:20 Paignton to London Paddington due 13:17
This train has been revised.It will no longer call at: Bath Spa and Chippenham.This is due to a fatality.


09:22 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central due 12:41
This train has been terminated at Westbury and restarted from Bristol Temple Meads at 11:54.It will no longer call at: Trowbridge, Bradford-On-Avon and Bath Spa.This is due to a fatality.


10:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 11:42
This train has been revised.It will no longer call at: Chippenham and Bath Spa.This is due to a fatality.


10:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour due 13:51
This train has been terminated at Bristol Temple Meads and restarted from Westbury at 12:02.It will no longer call at: Bath Spa, Bradford-On-Avon and Trowbridge.This is due to a fatality.


10:30 London Paddington to Weston-Super-Mare due 12:35
This train has been revised.It will no longer call at: Chippenham and Bath Spa.This is due to a fatality.


10:43 Great Malvern to Brighton due 16:14
This train will be started from Worcester Shrub Hill.It will no longer call at: Great Malvern, Malvern Link and Worcester Foregate Street.This is due to congestion caused by earlier delays.


11:00 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington due 12:42
This train has been cancelled.This is due to a fatality.


11:00 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 12:42
This train has been revised.It will no longer call at: Chippenham and Bath Spa.This is due to a fatality.


11:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads due 13:15
This train has been revised.It will no longer call at: Chippenham and Bath Spa.This is due to a fatality.


11:30 Weston-Super-Mare to London Paddington due 13:41
This train has been revised.It will no longer call at: Bath Spa and Chippenham.This is due to a fatality.


12:42 Gloucester to Westbury due 14:35
This train has been reinstated.

Chaos!

Can't seem to pinpoint the train involved.

Looks like a fun evening!

1600 Weston Super Mare - 51 late into Bristol TM where cancelled
1601 Westbury - Cancelled
1608 Great Malvern - Not yet left Bath (presume)
1613 London Paddington - Not yet arrived Bath
1625 Bristol TM - Cancelled Swindon
1635 Cardiff Central - Not yet left Bradford-O-A (Presume)
1636 Portsmouth Harbour - Cancelled Bristol TM
1643 London Paddington - Cancelled (via Westerleigh)
1700 Weston Super Mare - Cancelled
1707 Weymouth - Cancelled
1708 Gloucester - Cancelled
1713 London Paddington - Cancelled
1725 Bristol TM - Cancelled

Need I continue...!

At least the Bristol-paddingtons have, and are using a diversionary route!  Seems surprising that Portsmouth-Cardiffs and Weymouth-Malvern etc seem never to be offered diversion via Melksham and Swindon! ( or is the signalling controlled by the same faulty system?)

I take it with electrification will also come resignalling which must now be due for renewal on the Bath-Bristol line as this appears to be becoming a bit of a signalling failure blackspot.

probably more to do with crews not signing the route, only a few west crew sign melksham to swindon, and to my knowledge none sign swindon to b/parkway via hullavington

Some Portsmouth Harbour services were only stopping at Westbury , did these go via Swindon or Taunton?

Interesting to note the 1600 PZ to PADD is being diverted to call Westbury, Chippenham, Swindon.

That's a capacity/flexibility improvement, not re-signalling.

I see what's happened now, you've assumed NR know what they are talking about - easy mistake to make.   ;D

Well done to Network Rail and FGW for recognizing this ever increasingly popular event by suspending engineering work and laying on extra trains. Bath city centre is a no go area for road traffic this Sunday until mid afternoon so travel by train:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=4803

Wave to my daughter.

I will - is she a train driver?  ;D

↑<chuckle>↑

How do all the people who arrive on these extra trains get home  -  run ?

I'm hearing reports of a body on the line outside Bath station - no further details and my apologies in advance for scare-mongering if it turns out to be untrue...

FGW first reported it on their text service at 07:02. Paddington to Bristol services being diverted avoiding Chippenham and Bath Spa.

One strange one - the 05:33 Weymouth to Bristol Parkway is reported by the website as being diverted via Swindon and not calling at any stations after Weymouth until Swindon due to a fatality. Assuming this is the same one the service should have called at a fair few stations before the incident happened.

I was at Westbury station this morning and an annoucement confirmed it was some form of fatality :(

No trains between Westbury and Bath Spa until at least 09:30 :-X

0700 from TRO was turned back at Bathampton Jnc, I'm now at home with a cup of coffee, as I suspect are many who were on the train.  ;D Now just keeping an eye on the departure board.

Fatality at Sydney Gardens according to our guard, hasn't been one there for a while, popular suicide spot.

Have they decided on the style of railings Bath City Council hoped to erect there?

From the Bath Chronicle (http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/news/Rail-delays-fatality-line-near-Bath/article-3587072-detail/article.html):


To add: FGWs 'Live Updates' now show services running as normal.

From the First Great Western press release:

I "ran" the Bath Half last year, and must admit it did spur me on with various HST drivers giving a friendly "toot" of encouragement as we proceeded along the road that parallels the railway into town going towards the finish :-)

Will be there again on Sunday, but in a watching from the sidelines capacity thankfully. It is a great event though.

http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/Extra-safety-advice-Bath-train-passengers-summer/story-21831161-detail/story.html?


Is there a problem that's getting worse, or just a high profile crackdown?    It goes on for a while ... leading to a single comment that says

Same story carries on further west ...

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Plymouth-rail-cops-ride-route-London-Penzance/story-21852791-detail/story.html?

Network Rail has organised a number of public drop-in sessions to inform Bath residents of electrification work through the City.


http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/News-Releases/Public-meetings-start-on-Bath-rail-electrification-216e.aspx


Moderator note: Meeting dates added to calendar. bignosemac

Interestingly (perhaps not) looking at that website I saw the Network Rail logo properly for the first time. I had always just seen three triangles at a jaunty angle. My world is now changed forever. Oops, took me long enough!

An interesting meeting ... with pictures of lots of bridges and structures and very much staffed by the designers of the steelwork and bridges, and by First Great Western (at least those were the people I spoke too  ;) ).

Community Rail has an issue in that the two Network Rail folks who used to look after us have been move on as the posts have been removed, and all around the country there has been a move to establish local relationships. I understand that it's worked/working very well in some areas, but in others the liaison role is being foisted on unwilling people; somewhat relieved to have a contact name now (though he was not there tonight) and by reputation he's a good 'un.

Some readers here may not be aware of Bath blockade details for summer 2015 ... until now it has been described to me as 3 weeks Box Tunnel followed by 3 weeks Box Tunnel plus Bath Eastern approaches.  I understand this evening that it's been amended to 2 + 4 rather than 3 + 3, so probably late July for the "2" and all of August for the "4".   I'm getting myself fully "genned up" so that I can (a) make tuning requests to plans which already seem to have been made (b) prepare literature and marketing to spin the best light on it and (c) understand change risks so that we don't print / publicise one set of changes just to find that they're changed.

..........hopefully not as serious as the incident at Hungerford last week.....



Alterations to services at Bath Spa
Due to a vehicle striking a bridge at Bath Spa all lines are blocked.
Impact:
Train services running through this station may be delayed or revised. An estimate for the resumption of normal services will be provided as soon as the problem has been fully assessed.

NR has issued two updates on the progress work being carried out during the July and August 2015 blockades:
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/Bath-TPOD-Newsletter-24-July.pdf
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/Newsletter-TPOD-week-2.pdf

How is the work progressing? I'm already thinking ahead for planning trips to check out the new trains!

As a side note:

The link in the first post is dead, highlighting why it's good practice to copy text as a quote.

That is just what I tend to do, when posting links to such items.  ;) :D ;D

The dates, and links to the newsletters, are in the relevant page on NR's site at
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/great-western-route-modernisation/banes/
(and may even be kept up to date there).

Both links stll work for me  ;)

I find it very difficult to quote text from a pdf document using my tablet. Shan't bother posting links again  >:(

Your links are fine. :)

It's the ones in the first post that's dead, pretty much leaving me unsure what exactly the original post was about other than guessing from the title.

It's the link to the Network Rail media centre announcement (http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/News-Releases/Public-meetings-start-on-Bath-rail-electrification-216e.aspx) quoted in the original post in this topic that is now dead - not either of yours, SandTEngineer.  :P

Does anyone know which is the westbound platform at Bath, as in,"the westbound platform has a severe step between the train and the platform from the front 3 train carriages".  (Description taken from National Rail's "Stations and Destinations" webpage).  I and elderly husband will be alighting from coach L at Bath on a Paddington-bound train and returning in coach L for Taunton.  I am just wondering how severe this step is.  Would it be National Rail that I should contact to ask to have the description amended to platform X or Y, as, to me at least, westbound is not helpful.

The westbound platform is the one on the south side of the station, which is the side away from the city centre.

It is a large drop, especially at the front end of the train (ie at the western end of the platform), substantially larger than most stations, and at 64 I find it difficult at times, especially with luggage. The station has ramps for wheeled access that can presumably be pre-booked through Great Western, who run the station.

The front end westbound platform will usually be coaches A B and C of high speed trains from London, headed for Bristol, Weston-super-mare, or beyond.

Most trains from other starting points are shorter and don't use the front of the platform.

Major works at Bath Spa station next Easter (April 2017) should re-align tracks and platforms and I would anticipate the situation would be improved after the works are completed.

That's a moot point. If you are not familiar with the station then you are unlikely to know which is platform 1 and which is 2.  However, I would have thought it is reasonably clear which is east and westbound - as an example in your case a train travelling towards London is going to be using the eastbound platform.  (I acknowledge that it is probably less clear if you are travelling to Weymouth and are unfamiliar with the geography of the rail lines in the area.)

Hi, Eliza.  ;)

I've found a generic picture on the internet to show that 'westbound platform':

(http://crjennings.com/The%20Remains%20of%20Britains%20Steam%20Age%20Railway/page%2028/DR156-140-,Bath-Spa-Station.jpg)

Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads stations both have such curved platforms - which were probably absolutely fine, for the rather shorter carriages that were in use when Isambard built them ...  ::)

Thank you, gentlemen, for your helpful replies.  My confusion must be to do with my faulty memory and the greater risk of stepping down than up.  On our previous visit, when we would have come into the eastbound platform 2, it seemed that the gap was wide, as well as the step being high.  Clearly it wasn't, as it's platform 1 westbound, which has the problem.  Anyway, I'm going to ask for the first time for the ramp, as we do travel with a folded wheelchair, and will put the getting off/on into the hands of the platform staff. 

A pedant replies. ;)

Isambard Kingdom Brunel didn't build the curved platforms at Bristol Temple Meads. He built the original straight train shed, currently a car park and event space. This should see trains using it again sometime next decade.The curved platforms were built in the 1870s by Francis Fox, with more added (platforms 9-15) by P.E. Culverhouse in the 1930s.

Is this definitely the case? The big step up or down at the western end of that platform was one of the issues I meant to raise at the consultation meetings NR held earlier this year, but didn't. It would be excellent news if it was indeed going to be improved, though with the curve, is there a limit to how much improvement can be achieved?

IIUI part of the planned improvement involve building the platforms out further so there is some potential to reduce the curvature.  This should also be set against the fact that the coaches of new (IEP) trains are 3m longer than the Mk IIIs of the HST, so there is potential for the gap problem to be worse in that respect although I would expect that overall the new package will result in an improvement.

I obviously don't know the extent of your Husbands mobility, but I do note that the very big gaps are only really encountered at Bath for the front 2 coaches on a long (HST, 125) train from London.  Keeping out of those coaches (which are usually coach A and B) means that the gap encountered will be much less and hopefully no worse than typical for a UK train.  You should also note that the station is fully staffed with a ramp on the platform that can be deployed if needed and also that the trains themselves have pretty decent grab handles both inside and outside the door.  Bath also has fairly new lifts installed giving step free access from the road/taxi level to the platform. 

There has to be re-alignment at Bath Spa to ensure clearance between the longer carriages and the (listed) canopies and the opportunity is being taken to widen the platforms enough to take more people on them.  In other cases in the same program of works associated with electrification, platforms that are substandard in terms of access into trains are being brought up to modern standards, even where those works are purely a lengthening that you might not have expected to effect the current platform.

So - I'm not definite, no, but I think I've come to a pretty likely conclusion from the evidence I've been given.

... with a fair comment: my 'blaming Isambard' generalisation was rather too sweeping.  :-[

Seems a train (haven’t worked out which) struck a person in the Sidney Gardens area at around 1640ish. I’m in 1C20 which was behind it between Box and Bathampton Jcn, which is wrong lining back to Chippenham, to divert via Badminton down to Bristol

Usual thoughts for BTP, Driver and those on site

Andy

I have taken the opportunity to move this topic to a more appropriate board and amend the title.

The train involved was the 16:30 from Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington.

Trains are now diverting via Hullavington (Badminton) not calling at Chippenham or Bath Spa.

North/south trains are terminating/starting back from Bristol Temple Meads and Westbury.

Latest update is the person is alive and has been airlifted to hospital.  One line has reopened for reversible working.

Limited good news. Let's hope they survive and make a full recovery.

The railway in Sydney Gardens is all in deep cutting isn't it. How would anyone be able to get onto the track there?

The gardens (Sydney Gardens) at one side of the cutting slope down to what is (or used to be) quite a low wall - you can see that on the right in the picture at Wiltshire 999 (http://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/major-delays-on-rush-hour-trains-after-a-person-is-hit-near-bath-spa-station/).  Favoured spot for watching trains go by! Actions to raise the wall / add further protection have certainly been on the agenda; I'm not 100% sure on the status of that, though.

Edit
Looks like fencing was put in as long ago as 2012 - https://bathnewseum.com/virtual-museum-of-bath-2012/train-by-fencing/ ... and reading RailUK Forum from around that time, I note that member BigNoseMac has frequented the area and can fill us in on the background.

I have been on trains which have stopped in Sydney Gardens so the driver could have a not so quiet word with kids sitting on that wall, legs dangling over the trackside. That was back in the 90s though.

From the Bath Chronicle (http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/news/bath-news/teenager-critical-condition-after-being-568303)


Note picture showing the seat in the park, the fence, and an HST behind it.   No confirmation that this picture was taken just after the incident, but it could well have been.

It's not much of a fence, is it? However, I think that's probably an old stock photo, as hasn't the bridge been recently rebuilt to allow greater headroom for the electrification that's not happening?

As further details have now emerged, I have updated the heading of this topic again, in the interests of clarity.

I thought the plan for getting wires under the bridges in Sydney Gardens was to lower the track rather than raise the bridges but I could be wrong.

Yes, that's what happened during the now pointless closure (as was the one for Box Tunnel).

As an aside, I recall that the person hit subsequently died. Sympathies to the family and others caught up in the incident.

If the track-lowering has been carried out it was not pointless. Having space available for wires will be one less cost when they finally get round to installing the OHLE. We are not talking about the Midland Main Line or the South Wales portion of the Great Western Main Line here; unlike those routes I beleive electrification through Sydney Gardens is postponed not cancelled. Even on those less-fortunate lines however, where the question is 'if' not 'when' they get around to electrification, having the necessary height available is probably still a good thing.

Maybe officially. But unofficially? Based on the comments we have seen recently about bimode being as good as electric etc, I would be very very surprised if the wires go up through Bath at any point in the short to medium term anyway.

The Bath Christmas Market will run from Thursday 22nd November 2018  to Sunday 9th December inclusive.

Filton Bank is closed on 24th and 25th November, and 1st and 2nd December (during the Christmas Market), with ticket easement for journeys from South Wales and north Bristol via Swindon to Bath Spa in place.  Apparently around 10% of rail travel to the Christmas Market is down Filton Bank.  Forty one extra trains to/via Bath Spa are planned over the three Saturdays - 24th November, and 1st and 8th December, and GWR are confident in stock and staff availability.

Above as told by GWR major possessions team - a couple of elements may still be draft, but I am cleared to share. Please take this more as guildines that rules just for the moment.

Today is September 11th, not April 1st!

The question was explicitly asked  ;D . For the first two Saturdays, the Severn Beach line will be closed and that will provide an extra margin ...

Any idea if Gloucester to Bath will be valid via Swindon during the works?

"Passengers who make journeys normally routed via Filton Bank will have an easement to allow them to travel all the way by train".  Of course, that may just be the plan ...

Hold your thoughts on that one ... serious journey requirement ?? ... I may be able to find out and ensure it's requested (that is different from ensuring it is granted though.)

For the sake of the people I meet at Gloucester I note that a fair few people travel to Bath from there. I am visiting friends down there and I will pay the extra to avoid the bus, however I have used it the last time as it came up on journey planner.

Huge numbers of people come from south Wales for the market, so am not surprised by the figures which have been quoted.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bath-swans-train-station-b1759858.html

"The Independent has contacted National Rail for comment on the incident"

I wonder if 'National Rail' will respond?

Swans on the line are a fairly common occurrence across the network.

As to how they came to be on the platform at Bath Spa?   They were herded there by track staff after being found on the track.

I hope they were wearing masks?

Don't think swans are required to, but the original article does tell us there were other reasons for them not to be there:

Paid the fare? Did they get on at Bradford or Avoncliff them?

From the Independent (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bath-swans-train-station-b1759858.html)


There's video of the capture on the linked page above.

They'd been for a trip on the Wareham to Swanage line.

On account of their size, swans struggle to take flight from land, prefering water. They therefore prefer to land on water and may mistake railway lines for water courses, this explains the relatively frequent landings on railway property.

Under favorable conditions swans CAN take off from land but need a reasonable unobstructed space in which to run and built up speed. They are not capable of vertical or near vertical take off.

Swans on railway lines can be captured by suitably trained persons and then released adjacent to water.
Interfering with swans is a serious offence.